Bousfield Teaching Talk

[VJOFan]

I’m not sure where or why I first saw this but I think it just was a suggestion on my You Tube feed.

Anyway, among the bits of advice he gives I found his bit on articulation (specifically at about 6:15 in) to be quite interesting.

He uses a lot of the tongue to articulate.

In the practice room I experimented with not making my tongue do what I usually do to get the classic “tip” articulation. With a neutral, relaxed tongue, more tongue surface did make contact. The resulting sound wasn’t that much different (better) but everything felt easier. I could get a good result with less effort.

More interesting to me is that letting the tongue go more on autopilot really improved the ease and clarity of my double tongue.

While Bousfield is just describing what he does and not giving instructions on how to, for me, it meant not purposely using the tongue muscle to make any arch to articulate. That keeps my tongue more relaxed and makes playing easier.

What in the video resonates (or not) for you?

W

[blast]

What resonates for me is that is the conservatoire where I teach !!!
Ian was in last week.... it was nice to see him.

Chris

[Bach5G]

The articulation. I’ve been concentrating on “Tu” and, like Ian, that’s not what I naturally do.

[torobone]

I thought the funniest thing was his age range: 12 to 20. I know a lot of older players who could benefit from his messages, especially comeback players.

[VJOFan]

I thought the funniest thing was his age range: 12 to 20. I know a lot of older players who could benefit from his messages, especially comeback players.

I didn't notice the intended age range.
I've been playing for 39 years and still was reminded of some important truths I sometimes slack on (his little breathing thing is great) and heard a couple of things to make me think about what I do.